Modern Mechanix has dug out a brilliant clipping from a 1957 story printed in an unknown publication, on the ‘benefits’ of high-heel wearing.

(Via Jezebel)

Back then, Dr Reginald Payne noted that high heels can cause bow legs and knock knees and “if men tried to put animals into such contraptions, every anti-cruelty league would have a fit”. Meanwhile, Dr Owen McDonagh felt that the medical benefits of the “sensation of slimness” and an “impression of greater leg length” should prevail.

Unfortunately, McDonagh seems to have won the day, given that an average of six women were being admitted into the University Hospital in Cardiff every weekend night from shoe-related accidents including broken bones, as of 2006, but folk are still shilling the tall shoes for all they’re worth.

It’s true, they are nice to look at, but so, so not worth it.

Photo by Ino*, shared under a Creative Commons license

Posted by Jess McCabe on 26 September 2007, at 4:34 PM